The Paleo Diet on the ‘Worst Of’ List…

The U.S. News and World Reports (USNWR) has just issued their annual ratings of Best Diets for 2014.

May I start by asking how much credibility we give this list which includes Jenny Craig and The Biggest Loser Diet amongst the top 10?

Further, how much faith can we have in it when the experts are all educated according to the traditional nutritional teachings stemming from the US Government, which happens to have more than just a slight connection to industries such as the dairy board and the agricultural industry?

Yes, these are trained professionals, including registered dietitians and physicians, but what does the curriculum they studied, and subsequently teach entail?

Exactly what we saw on the food pyramid and what we see on the MyPlate schematic now.

As a result, our country grows fatter and sicker, increasing the demand for a Western approach to treating symptoms, not causes, by making the prescribing of pills for everything and anything the norm, and forcing any professional who actually address what one is eating and how they’re moving into the ‘alternative’ medicine category, often which is not covered by insurance companies.

If the same organization serves to benefit by selling certain products (like dairy, or wheat), teaching its students that these products are good food options so that they can further promote them, and then benefits even more when another of its affiliates (the pharmaceutical companies) increase their sales, it’s really a win-win situation for that particular organization, isn’t it?

And that very organization has such a huge budget, it can fund numerous studies perpetuating all the benefits of any of the products above.

Please keep in mind, it is not my position that we need to throw western meds out the door; on the contrary, they have a very important place in the lives of many people.

My point is simply that I don’t believe in a model that pushes pills as step one and doesn’t look at the most basic ingredient in one’s health (what they’re eating).

There is no money in health. There’s plenty in sickness, though.

As a result, when we compare the number of studies that have been done to show the benefits of Paleo versus the studies done to show things like how dairy helps to build strong bones or how dietary fiber must be consumed via 6 – 11 servings of bread per day, they’re few and far between.

Add to that the fact that Paleo is so often misunderstood and misrepresented, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

Dr. Cordain has published his response to this latest ranking of the Paleo Diet and it’s an absolute must read: